Musings and observations about life

By now, you may know that at Sunday’s Oscar’s, Warren Beatty hesitated after opening the envelope for the Best Picture recipient. He looked at the card and then inside the envelope again. He looked at Faye Dunaway, began to say, “And the Best Picture goes to” and then handed the card to Faye Dunaway. Faye Dunaway immediately said, “La La Land.”

Spoiler alert.

Lots of applause, people coming up on stage, making speeches, and then more confusion. Turns out “Moonlight” and not “La La Land” had not won Best Picture.

Faye Dunaway reads what’s supposed to be the Best Picture Oscar.

The category was Best Picture, and as beautiful as she may be, as picturesque as she may be, Emma Stone is not a motion picture. Thus she could not be considered for the Best Picture award at the Oscar’s.

The mistake was corrected as gracefully as it could have been. Warren Beatty later said the card had Emma Stone’s name as Best Actress in a Leading Role, in “La La Land.”

So back to my question: Why is it we don’t trust our eyes? Why don’t we trust what is right in front of our eyes?

Sometimes, that question is literal, as in Warren Beatty’s case. At other times, it’s figurative.

For example, sometimes we wonder why we keep doing the same thing over and over. We wonder why things never change. I would dare say sometimes it’s because we don’t want things to change, and at other times we just don’t see how they will change. We don’t want to see what’s wrong. We don’t have vision.

Mahershala Ali, as Juan, in “Moonlight”

Could be that we’re hopeful? We see what’s in front of us, but we don’t want to believe it. I wonder how many people have gotten bitten by a snake because they saw a snake, couldn’t believe it was a snake and ignored the snake.

I wonder how often we stay in a rut because we don’t want to see that we’re actually in a rut.

Maybe in Warren Beatty’s case, he clearly saw that the card said Best Actress Emma Stone for “La La Land” but could not believe his eyes. Maybe he was thinking, “Why does this card say Emma Stone when it should say the name of one of the movies?” So when he hands the card to Faye Dunaway, perhaps he was hoping that what his lying eyes were seeing, hers would see also. Maybe she would notice, and maybe she would mention to someone that the card had the wrong information.

Was he afraid to trust what was right in front of him?

Instead, Faye Dunaway glanced down and saw the part of the card that said “La La Land,” which was the name of a movie eligible for the Best Picture Oscar. Warren Beatty got no validation that what he had seen was an error.

Have you ever turned to someone for validation or for unspoken support of what you knew to be something wrong? Did you get what you were looking for?

You knew that what you were seeing was wrong but yet no one else accepted the wrong as a wrong. Did you stand up and say, “This is not right?” Did you go along knowing that what others saw as right was really wrong?

What about now? Do you question things that do not seem quite right, things your gut checks as wrong, or do you still just go with the flow?

Seems like this should be clear-cut. Right is right, and wrong is wrong, even when your eyes and those around you try to trick you into believing otherwise.